Governing mechanism for internal-combustion engines



' Nov. 6, 1323,

H. KENT-NORRIS GOVERNING MECHANISM FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed Oct. 11, 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Novfe, 1923.

H, KENT-NORR GOVERNING MECHANISM FOR INTERNAL- COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed Oct; 11, 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Nov. 6, 1923.

HENRY KENT-NORRIS, or ivnwnunvgnncnnnn, ZASSIGNOR TO .P-LENTY a son LIM- rrnn, or NEWBURY, ENGLAND.

GOVERNING MECHANISIM FOR INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINES.

Application filedflotober 11, 1920. Serial No'.4'16,220.

'1 0 all whom it may cmwevm Be it lmown that I, 'Hnxnrlxnx'r-Nonnrs,

a subject of'the- King of-Great Britain, re

and connected with governing mechanism ior internal combustionengines. In these engines,and particularly in-engmes consuming liqurd fuel, the governor operates to cut out the fuel supply during one or more strokes and when the speed has beensu'ticientl-y reduced for the governor to cut in the supply again, it is a common thing for the explosion following to be of a violent character. F or example, during the idle stroke or strokes,'-the cylinder =may become filled avith pure air,1and, when the-governor cuts in,-a full chargeofliquid fuel is injected and, an efficient mixture being made, a

' powerful explosion and impulse result from the ignition ot this-cha rge of mixture. An important object of the present invention is to prevent-this violent explosion after a cut out period and thereby secure greater e ificiencyiand more even running of the engine.

A further object is to render' it possible to have-a graduated resumption'of the charging of the engine after a cutout per-1od,'1I" this should he desired. A stillfurther-object is to reduce theamount of'wear and tear onthe governor mechanism, thereby prolonging its life and maintaining itsefiici'enc Finally an object of the invention is to adapt the improvements for the simultaneous cutting out of two or more cylinders so :that it is impossible for one cylinder to he cut out more often than another and uniformity in the loading and "working conditions of the different cylinders is thereby ensured.

According to this invention, the improved governor niechanism'comprises in combination a cam plate or lever device, maintained in an operative position by :a spring and adapted to be moved by a governor device, duringabnormal speed conditions, to a'posi- 'tion in which the cut off of the. fuel supply is effected, and :an automatic trip device adapted for simultaneously locking the cam plate 'or le'ver device 1n theoperatrveprjsrtion a gainstatlie-action ot the spring and projecting itself into the normal path of the governor devlce, so that, upon-a *reduc- 1 tion of the speed to the normal, the trip device will be operated for releasing the oamplate or lever device and'restoring the fuel supply. 'In the "normal inoperative posi- 'ilQIl of the cam plate or lever device the trip device lies out'of range ofthe governor "device so that there is no unnecessary wear and tearon these parts, and by asimple-ach j-ustment of the trip device it is possible to time the operation of-the' trip device so that any desired reduced charge may be supplied nor-admitted tothe engine cylinderafter a cut out stroke or perioc.

In order to enable this invention to be readily understood, reference is "made to "the accompanying drawings, in "which Figure 118-21. slde elevation of a governing mechanism constructed and arranged in 4 accordance with this improvement and adapted for use "With a single-cylinder engine.

Figure 2 1s :a' side elevation of a mecha nism similar to that seen in Figure 1 but.

adapted torguse with a two-cylinder engine.

Figure 5 is 'si'deelevation illustrating a 'modifi cationas adapted for use with -a twocylinder engine.

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view of anarrangement of governor d's-vice similar to 'i'lltlt'SllOWll in Figure 1," and v Fig. 5 is :a diagrammatic side-elevation of the same governor -=devic e showing its relation to" the fuel "pinup :and its driving mechanism; v

ii-111a suitable construction embodying these teatures and as :seen in Figure 1, an -inertia governor device comprises reciprocatory rod "(1. :having a'r'ounded projection b or the like, which is maintained in contact with a slide surface 0 c by as'pring, not shown. The said surface comprises two rectilinear paths, one marked =0 and the other 0 connected by'an incline or step (Z disposed about midway along the slide path. The recipro catory rod a: carries a striker block e formed with an angular recess 6 in its forward end, and an anglele-ver f is pivotallymounted so that one of its arms, namely the arm winarked 7, lies in the plane containing the path of :travel'of the block 6 and so that the extremity of this arm 7 lies just beyond the normal path of the hlock 6. During inonmal speed conditions, the rod a reciprocates and its projection traverses the slide path c, d, 0' so that during each alternate stroke it ascends the incline or step (Z against the action of the spring, but the speed of such ascent is not suliicient to throw the rod a outwards to such an extent that the block a will engage thearm 7' of the angle lever. When the speed becomes excessive, however, the projection Z), in making the ascent, throws the rod 0; out suificiently for the block a to engage the arm f of the angle lever, whereby the latter is turned through a predetermined angle. The other arm f of the angle lever is adapted to engage an arm 9 on a spindle 7t upon which a cam disc or plate j is mounted, so that the engagement oi? the block a with the lever arm 7 effects a partial revolution of the cam disc or plate j. The latter, when so turned, is adapted for operating a. suitable valve 76 controlling the admission or supply or" fuel to the engine. For example, the cam may press open a bye-pass valve on an injection teed pump, so that the latter will fail to deliver a charge to the engine, or it may hold open the suction valve of the pump, so that the pump will fail to make a delivery owing to the suction being open during the delivery stroke. The said partial revolution of the cam j is ellected against the action of a spring, not shown, which constantly tends to maintain the cam plate j in the normal position, and the immediate return of the cam plate to such normal position is prevented by means of a trip pawl 7. which takes into suitable teeth or recesses in formed in the periphery of the cam plate or disc this engagement of the pawl Z being suitably eltected by means of a small spring plunger 71. 'The pawl Z forms one arm of a two-arnied lever Z Z and the entry of the pawl K into one of the toothed recesses 121 permits the other arm 7 of the lever to move forwardly towards the extremity of the reciprocatory rod (4. This arm of the lever is titted with an adjustable set screw 2) designed to form an abutment or striking surface tor the extremity of the said rod 0, and the set screw 7) is so adjusted that, in this forward position of the lever, the end of the set screw 72 projects into the path of the rod a, or into range for operation by the extremity of such rod. -When the speed falls again to the normal, therefore, the rod a makes a stroke, and its block 6 misses the angle lever arm but its extremity strikes the set screw p of the twoarmed pawl lever Z Z thereby releasing the pawl Z from the toothed recesses m of the cam plate or disc j, and permitting the latter to he turned to its normal position by means of its spring. Thus the pump is restored to normal working conditions and is free to supply the engine cylinder .with an injection.

let it be supposed, for the purposes of illustration, that the pump normally makes its injection during the last three millimetres of travel of the reciproc-atory rod (n, then suppose that the screw 31 is adjusted so that, in the forward position of the lever arm l, it overlaps the path of the rod 0. to tie extent of two millimetres, itwill be apparent that upon the striking of the trip pawl arm Z by the governor rod (4, so that the pawl Z released and the cam disc j is returned by its spring the pump will be restored to normal working so late in the stroke that it will not be able to deliver a full. charge but that it will deliver only two-thirds or less oi the full charge. Naturally, it the screw 7) is adjusted towards the rod a. the release of the cam j will take place earlier and the amount of the charge will'be greater than before. Therefore, after a cut-out period or stroke, the first effective stroke or". the engine is not made under the efiort produced by a full charge, but is made by the eli'ort produced bya reduced charge. There will, therefore, be a complete absence of that bumping or violent impulse commonly e);- perienced when a governor cuts in, particularly in engines of the Diesel or semi- Diesel type. The rod a is conveniently reciprocated from the engine crank shaft or other moving part by means of the double armed lever m and the rod 1 The angle lever f f may be operated against the action of its own spring and, as shown in the drawing, its arm f may be fitted with an adjustable set screw Q for en-v gaging the arm 9 of the cam plate spindle f1, whereby the turning of the latter may be regulated to suit requirements. The arm f of the angle lever may be bent round and pointed at its extremity, as at 7" so that it is fairly represented towards the direction ot approach oi the block e on the rod '0, and is adaoted for securely on ging with the annular recess 6 in the for ardend of such block e. It will be apparent that by withdrawing the screw 1') in the trip lever 7 Z to such an extent that it projects only one millimetre over the path of the rod 1 in the circumstances named, the delivery by the pump on its first effective stroke after a resumption will be less than one third ot the normal delivery. Therefore. the degree of adjustment of this set screw 7) determines the amount of the delivery by the pump during thelirst stroke after the governor has cut in, as will. be readily understood.

Referring to Figs. 4 and 5, l is the fuel pump, the piston of which is carried by a rod 2 onnected to a member 3 on a rockshatt 4:, the piston being moved inwardly. against the action of a compression spring, by a. tappet 5 fixed on the rock shatt 6 by which. the two-armed lever a? is carried. From the pump cylinder, the fuel is nor loo lit) mally pumped througha pipe 7 to the engine combustion chamber, this arrangementheing well known.

7c is the end or toe piece of the stem of a relief valve which is'arranged in the pump casting and controls a by pass'passage communicating with -the :pump cylinder and also with the fuel supply thereto. dV'hi-le the engine is running normally the relief valve closes the by-pass, so 't-hat luel is supplied directly to'the engine combustion chamber. hen, however, the engine exceeds the desired speed and the disc 7' through the governormechanism has been rotated so that the toe piece Z: rests upon the larger diameter of thecam disc 7' the relief valve is thus'raise'd and opens the bypass passage between the pump cylinder and the the! supply. so that the fuel instead of being pumped into the engine is returned to the supply.

In an engine of two or more cylinders, it is important that the feed in each or all of the cylinders should be cut out simul taneously, otherwise one cylinder would be colder than another and one would be more heavily loaded than another. In a suitable arrangement for a two cylinder engine, and as shown in Figure 2, one of the cylinders is fitted with a mechanism such as is above described, all the similar parts in Figure 2 having the same reference letters as in Figure 1. The second cylinder is fitted with a cam plate or disc j, like the first, for operating on the fuel feedlc and the arm 9 on the spindle 7L of this cam plate 7" is operated by the arm of the other cam plate j by means of a slider?" disposed between the two arms g and g. The trip pawl levers s of the'second cam plate j is adapted to be operated by a plunger t which, when the pawls engagesin a toothed recess m, is projected by the trip lever '8 into the path ofa projection w on the oscillatory two armed lever a; which drives the reciprocatory rod a aforesaid. Figure2, a spring a is of sufiicient strength to support the plunger rod normally out of'the way of the projection w. When the rod 9* is moved to the left however, thereby turning the arm g and disc. 7", thespring plunger 91. lifts the pawl .9 into one of the recesses m and depresses the arm 8, the latter pressing down the plunger t against the action of the spring u. Thus the bottom end of the plunger t is projected into the path of theprojection a2 and the plunger is adaptedto be raised and trip the lever s at every outward movement of'said projection.

Should however a high speed of the engine be maintained the cam-disc 7" cannot turn, although thepawl s of the lever s is disengagedtherefrom, because the arm gQfixed with relation to the disc j, is re- As'seen in the arm 9 being then free to 'moveto the right, as theslider 7' isno longer retained by the arm .9 of the cam disc Both cylind'ers will "be cut out simultaneously and when normal speed :isrestored, the parts helonging to the first cylinder will first be tripped and the valve 70 restored to the'normal during the outward stroke of therod-a "as above described, and the parts belonging to the second cylinder will then be tripped and .the valve k restored during the following inward stroke of the rod (4, that is to say by the projection striking the depressed plunger 2f, thereby achievingthe objects of this modification.

The modification seen in Figure 3 is very similar to that illustrated in Figure 2, with the exception that the cam discs, such as j j Figure 2, are dispensed with and arms '0 c on the spindles 72,. 71. operate the stems of the valve devices 76 through the me- (hum of adjustable set screws w 10. Also in Figure 3, the arm f of the lever f f becomes a mere projection on the hub of this lever. This armor projection f strikes the lever arm 9 as before, and the arm 9 strikes a slider 1' which strikes an arm in the same manner as infFigure 2. In Figure 3, however, the arms g g are lengthened and are fitted with projections or devices at .2 z

for engaging with the trip pawlsZ ands when thearms g g" are pushed over as'described. The trip pawls Z and s are raised to the operative position by the spring plungers a a as in Figure 2, this raising of the pawls bringing the adjustable set screw pen the arm Z into the range of movement of the rod [4 and causing the adjustable set screw p on the 'arm s to depress the plunger t so that the latter comes into the range of movementot the projection 03. The operation of the mechanism seen in Figure 3, is, otherwise, similar to that of the mechanism seen in Figure 2. l g

All the above constructions have a further advantage which is gained during light run- 'ning'andmay now be explained. In the ordinaryway, and when an engine is running light, there is an explosion of a full charge, whereupon the governor cuts out and the engine performs a large number of revolutions beforethe speed is sufliciently reduced for the governor to cut in again. Thentakes 'placeanother explosion on-a full charge, followed by a large number of idle revolutions. Now with the mechanisms above described, when the governor cuts in, only a partial charge is supplied to the engine, so that, when running light, there will be a fewer number of idle revolutions before the governor cuts in again whereupon a further partial charge is supplied. Consequently, the proportion of elfective revolutions to idle revolutions during light running is increased, so that the temperature of the engine is maintained and even running conditions are preserved.

I claim 1. An inertia governor for internal combustion engines, comprising a fuel cut-oft device, means actuated by an excessive speed of the engine to operate said device to cut.- ott the fuel supply, and means operable during the return of the speed to normal to supply a suhnormal charge of fuel to the engine.

2. An inertia governor device for internal combustion engines, comprising a fuel cut-out device, means actuated by an excessive speed of the engine to move said de vice into operative position for cutting out the fuel supply, an automatically operating device for retainingthe cut-out device in its operative position, and adjustable abutment means on the retaining device adapted to be operated upon by the inertia device to release said retaining device when the speed of the engine returns to normal, said abutment device being adjustable to allow a sub normal fuel charge to supplied to the engine, prior to the normal fuel'feed being restored. I

An inertia governor for internal combustion engines comprising fuel cut-off means, operating means adapted to shift said cut-ofi means to an operative position in which fuel supply is cut off from the engine, an inertia device normally moving Bar of said operating means but adapted to e said means during excessive speed, a detent adapted to engage and lock nit-oft means in the operative position, trip detent in the engaged position beprojected over the end of the normal path of releasing means moving with said inertia device, and automatic means constantly operative on said cut-oil means in the direction for returning said cut-oil means to the inoperative position.

4:. An inertia governor for internal combustion engines comprising fuel cut-ofi' means, operating means adapted to shift said cut-off means to an operative position in which fuel supply cut off from the engine, an inertia device normally moving clear of said operating means but adapted to: engage said means during excessive speed, a trip detent adapted to engage and lock said cut-off means in the operative position, an adjustable abutment on said trip detent, said abutinent being projected over the end of the normal path of releasing means moving with said inertia device, and automatic means constantly operative on said cut-off means in the direction for returning said cut-off means to the inoperative position.

An inertia governor for internal combustion engines comprising in combination fuel cut-oil means automatically returnable to an inoperative position, operating means associated with said cutoff means, a governor rod reciprocated by the engine, an abutment on said rod adapted to engage said operating means when said rod is influenced by excessive speed, locking means associated with said cut-off means, and a two-armed detent having one arm adapted to operatively engage with said locking means when said cut-oil means is shifted to the operative position, and the other arm adapted to overlap the end of the normal path of said rod when said engagement is effected.

6. An inertiagovernor for internal. combustion engines comprising in combination fuel cut-01f means automatically returnable to an inoperative position, operating means associated with said cut-off means, a governor rod reciprocated by the engine, an abutment on said rod adapted to engage said operating means when said rod is influenced by excessive speed, locking means associated with said cut-off means and adapted for locking the latter in the operative position, a two-armed detent having one arm adapted to operativelv engage with said locking means when said cut-off means is shifted to the operative position, and an adjustable abutment on the second arm of said detent, said adjustable abutment being disposed so as to be projected over the end portion of the normal path of said rod when said looking engagement is effected.

7. An inertia governor for internal combustion engines with more than one cylinder, comprising a plurality of normally inoperative fuel cut-oft means, one for each cylindcr. operating means for one of said cutoff means and adapted to shift said cut-oif means to an inoperative position, an inertia. device normally movable clear of said operating means but adapted to engage said operating means during excessive speed, trip detent-s adapted to engage and lock said cut-off means in the operative position, said trip detents in the engaged position being projected over the end portions of the normal paths of respective releasing means moving with said inertia device, a transmission device arranged between two cutoil means for communicating movement received from the governordevice by one of said means whereby all cut-oif mean of the plurality are operated in unison.

8. Aninertia governor for internal combustion engines with more than one cylinder, comprising a plurality of normally inoperative fuel cut-off means one for each cylinder, a plurality of control arms one for each cut-off means, a pivotal device in operative relation with one of said control arms, an inertia device normally movable clear of said pivotal device but adapted to engage the same under excessive speed conditions, transmission means adapted for communicating motion from one to another of said cut-oif means, for effecting the operation of the latter in unison,a pluralityof automatic locking detents appropriate to respective cut-ofi' means, said detents being adapted to lock said cut-off means in the operative position, and release means driven by the engine and adapted for tripping said detents upon return of normal speed conditions, said release means being timed to effect said tripping late in the admission strokes of the respective cylinders for the purpose set forth,

9. An inertia governor arrangement for internal combustion engines comprising .11 plurality of normally inoperative fuel cutoff means one for each cylinder, a plurality of control arms one for each cut-off means, transmission devices disposed between said control arms for effecting the operation of said arms in unison, a pivotal device in operative relation with one of said control arms, an inertia device normally movable clear of said pivotal device but adapted to engage the same under excessive speed conditions, a locking detent for each cut-off means, said detents being adapted for automatically locking said cut-off means in the operative position, release arms on said detents, and striking devices adapted for operating said release arms when the latter have been shifted by the locking movements of said detents, said striking devices being driven by the engine and disposed so that they operate said release arms late in the inlet stroke of respective cylinders, for the purpose set forth.

10. 'An inertia governor arrangement for internal combustion engines comprising a fuel cut-off valve device, a cam device for operating said valve so as to produce either full or partial cutoff, an automatic detent for engaging and locking said cam in either 7 of these positions, means constantly tending to turn said cam device to the inoperative position, a controlarm associated with said cam device, a pivotal device in operative relation with said control arm, an inertiadevice normally moving free of said pivotal device but adapted for engaging same under excessive speed conditions, a release arm on said detent, an adjustable abutment on said release arm, and a striker operated by the engine and adapted upon a return of normal speed conditionsto strike said release arm, while the detent engages the cam in the cutoff or partial cut-off position whereby the cam is permitted to return to the inoperative position in steps for the purpose set forth.

HENRY KENT-NORRIS. 

